Cognitive
by Ecksido
Summary: With this power I can avenge you. With this power I can finish what you started. With this power... Izanagi.


**There are no pairings, and this story certainly ****does not feature yaoi****. This will likely be the shortest chapter of this story.**

**Cognitive**

**A Naruto FanFiction **

**By Ecksido**

Since the moment of Naruto Uzumaki's "enrolment" into the Root division of the Anbu Black Ops, he had been treated the same as any other member. He had received no special instruction from a top-tier ninja on how to perform a jutsu that could instantly turn the tide of a battle, nor did he, throughout his years, develop an original fighting style that was completely unique.

At the age of two, his parents were killed in the Kyuubi attack, which left him alone in a shelter for those who had lost their homes. Alone, scared, and confused, he hadn't a clue where he was, what had happened, or what had happened to his parents. At the age of three, he was put into an orphanage where he shared a creaky, uncomfortable bed that groaned every time you made the slightest of movements on it with three other people. The bed was made to fit one person. His fellow orphans and himself received small rations of food two times a day. There was no bathroom, and there was nothing to keep the building cool. Naruto's own room reeked of piss and body odour- the outcome of dozens of bodies shovelled into a tiny room, no less. There was no money in Konoha. The Kyuubi's attack had brought Konoha's economy to an all time low, and therefore the orphanage received little funding from the Hokage's office. There was nothing to entertain the children except themselves, which was how the gangs started. If you weren't in a gang, you were essentially dead. To join a gang was to receive protection from other gangs, who'd rob you for your few possessions or beat you to the brink of death just for the hell of it. Naruto was unfortunate enough to not find his place into a gang. Of course he didn't know this at the time. At three years old, he had really had no conception of what was happening around him, only that he aches and pains inside of him, and that his needs were not being met. While he did not end up in a gang, he was, however, fortunate enough not to be a main target for the gangs' wrath. He had no possessions minus the ragged scraps on his body, and many couldn't bring themselves to hurt a child of his age, bad times and depression or not.

At four, Naruto found his salvation. In the middle of the night one of the owners of the orphanage, somebody he had seen around occasionally, opened the door to Naruto's room, gave a cursory glance around the room, and pointed at him and two others, motioning to follow her. Tired, hungry, and broken, Naruto carelessly followed his elder out the door. They walked on through a string of halls until they reached an unfinished room that contained seven or eight other children. Though he would never realize, every child in the room that night was exactly like him. No family, gang-less, beaten and broken, and a fresh, malleable slate to push one's beliefs and teachings on.

Naruto could never recall the events between that room full of children and the moment he woke up alone in a small room, which barely fit his bed, one that was far more comfortable than any other he had remembered. The weeks following would be filled with testing, to "see if he was healthy", according to one of the masked people that always seemed to be near him. Throughout that time he was slowly fed more each day, until his ribs became less and less visible when he was shirtless. Then the physical work started. What first started as easy tasks became harder and harder as he was pushed to exert himself physically to an extent he had never had to before. Each day he was told what to do, and without arguing he would do it. If he failed, he would start over. He never saw anybody who was mask-less, and even to the masked people he did see, he rarely spoke. After his first few complaints, he realized it was fruitless, for the masked people would simply ignore him, or tell him to start over. The days were monotonous, but it was far better than the days back at the orphanage. About seven months into his physical conditioning, his masked mentors started to interact more in his training. They taught him to fight. From day one they were relentless, and even though he lost motivation quickly, he was forced to try as hard as he could, lest he die. He almost did die several times, but was quickly healed using some power that Naruto hadn't seen before. Non-near-fatal wounds were never healed, and Naruto would be forced to endure the pain of having to wake up and receive equally or more painful wounds while still nursing his already present pains. At some point in his training, he would never be sure when, he learned to nearly ignore all of the pain he received until after the battle was over. He would improve at a moderate pace for the next eleven months, a mere year and a half after being sent to his present _home_, but in that time, he would never land a blow on his masked trainers.

After that year and a half, he progressed on to higher levels of training where he would spend nine hours of his day learning more hand-to-hand combat, which he learned was called taijutsu, the glowing magic he had seen from his trainer earlier, which he learned was called ninjutsu, and the art of deception and illusions using similar elements to ninjutsu, which was called genjutsu. He would also spend another four hours a day learning the technicalities behind these three arts, theory, and in-depth knowledge about everything and anything to do with the ninja arts. That's what he was: a ninja. Naruto Uzumaki was part of an organization called Anbu Root: Konoha's protector that lay in the shadows. Sometime during his training he would learn that most of the masked people that taught him were actually clones, and simply a copy of somebody else. His life would continue in this manner for three years.

At age eight he would meet somebody who would become his closest friend during his lifetime. Sasuke Uchiha was introduced as his sparring partner, and was the first real face, not including his own, that he seen in nearly half a decade. Apparently this boy was two years younger than him, and had gone through his training much faster than Naruto had, which was why they were training together. It gave Naruto a chance to put his recently learned manipulative social skills to use. Day one was a failure, day two wasn't so bad, and by day three he seemed to be a master at it. A month later and they both learned that they would be a two-man assassination cell. Their abilities, after being analyzed by their trainers, had left them in that category. They were taught everything they needed to know about their art and teamwork, but now that they were not being taught individually, they were also taught to be independent and to not develop relationships or feelings, for that would get in the way of the mission and maximum efficiency could not be reached. Naruto's mind had never longed for those things, likely because he'd been alone for three quarters of life, but the training seemed to want to reinforce those ideas. He had no problem with it, as he did see the logic they were using, but… he seemed to become closer and closer to Sasuke. He didn't realize at first, but after their first year together, Naruto was sure that he had developed legitimate feelings for Sasuke. He knew Sasuke had feelings for him too, though only Sasuke seemed to understand how to show it, not that he did. It was unspoken, mutual feeling that both of them mentally promised to never speak of or show.

Sasuke would break that promise first. On their first mission as duo, Sasuke would take a kunai for Naruto while escaping the perimeter after having just dealt with their target. After escaping, Naruto would also break that promise. He had never really contemplated the idea of his own death, but the few times he had, he decided that it didn't really bother him, but when Sasuke intercepted the kunai with his body, the emotions he had kept hidden from Root came as a tidal wave. First came shock, then panic, and then…worry? With speed he never thought he had ever possessed, he been able to find a safe shelter in record time, where he treated Sasuke's wounds. Nobody would ever hear of Sasuke's sacrifice, but it became the most time consuming thought in Naruto's mind. That one idea, that developing of emotions would change Naruto's life forever.

**This is not going to be centred around Naruto and Sasuke becoming best buddies and having the greatest times ever doing Root missions with a friendly Danzo and then finally becoming super great friends with the other main canon characters. Trust me when this story is completely different than what you're thinking right now. After chapter two, everything is going to go to hell. This is NOT a story with pairings. I don't care for slash at all. On another note, I wrote this in about an hour and a half at school, so I don't expect it to be perfect.**

_Chapter Inspired by: Black Valour ~ The Black Dahlia Murder_


End file.
